22 OUR ROCK-GARDEN 



character : and by adding only such circumstances 

 as accord with the general expression of the scene, 

 awakening emotions more full, more simple, and 

 more harmonious." What applies to landscape 

 gardening as a whole applies no less to the limita- 

 tion we impose on ourselves, and it will be found 

 that the common brickbat fails to awaken the right 

 sort of emotion, nor does a garnishing of broken 

 plates adequately recall the grandeur of the 

 sculptured cliff, the loveliness of some Alpine dell, 

 where amidst the noble masses of lichen-stained 

 rock nestle the saxifrages and gentians, white as the 

 eternal snows, blue as the vault of heaven o'er- 

 head. The eye and the mind, incapable of taking 

 in, without strain, more than a certain amount of 

 sublimity, call for a rest, and even amidst the 

 grandest scenes must presently call " Hold, enough!" 

 If then, turning aside awhile from the glorious 

 prospect of glacier or snowfield, we contemplate our 

 immediate surroundings, the wild strawberry, the 

 pure white Alpine crowfoot springing amidst the 

 grass around us, the spleenwort amidst the crannies 

 of the rock, we not only realise that at our feet is 

 beauty no less worthy of our regard, but we give 

 the eye and the mind the refreshment that they need. 



" If we could open and intend our eye, 

 We all, like Moses, should espy, 

 E'en in a bush, the radiant Deity. 1 



Cowley, " The Garden," 



